alan farley – SMB Noir

November 1944 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

November 1944 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

better image than previously posted

Dale Clark, “Stay, Fido, Stay” (Highland Park “High” Price)

Lawrence Treat, “Death on the Palette”

G.T. Fleming-Roberts, “Dig a Grave for Me”

Alan Farley, “A Mouse in the Hand”

Julius Long, “C.D. for Corpus Delicti” (Clarence Darrow Mort)

Henry Norton, “No Tears for the Lady”

[updated 11/15/25]

February 1944 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

February 1944 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

better image than previously posted

D.L. Champion, “The Day Nobody Died” (Inspector Allhoff)

Lawrence Treat, “Death’s Old Sweet Song” (Edward Asa Scott)

Julius Long, “The Corpse Belongs to Daddy”

Alan Farley, “Man’s Best Friend is His Murder”

Clyde Morehead, “The Remembering Skull”

Berna Morris, “Winter Violets”

July 1949 issue ~ cover art by Norman Saunders

July 1949 issue

cover art by Norman Saunders

~ Richard Deming, “Big Shots Die Young”, Manville “Manny” Moon, 1^st-person narrator, 4^th of 6 stories in BM

~ Frank Gordon, “Last Kill and Testament”, ‘Alphonse Bertillon’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ W. Lee Herrington, [also published in BM as Alan Farley], “Die, Die Again”, last of 4 stories under this name in BM

~ Edward A. Herron, “Death’s 43 Days”, ‘Yukon short-short’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ John D. MacDonald, “Heritage of Hate”, 5^th of 6 stories in BM

~ Larry J. Marcus, “Through the Murder Glass”, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Robert Martin, “Richest Man in Graveyard”, 3rd of 6 stories with ‘Dr. Clint Colby, medical detective‘, 5th of 8 stories in BM

~ Talmage Powell, “Her Dagger Before Me”, ‘Tampa (Florida) p.i. Lloyd’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), author’s only appearance in BM

~ Harold Preece, “Boulevard Buzzards”, ‘short-short; Paris in 1880’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Robert P. Toombs, “These Dead Hands Reaching”, 1^st of 3 stories in BM

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

Oil on canvas, 25 x 18 inches (63.5 x 45.7 cm)
Signed lower right

November 1942 issue

cover art by Rafael De Soto

~ Dale Clark, “Now I Slay Me – ”, 12th of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 14^th of 32 stories in BM

~ Norbert Davis, “Beat Me Daddy”, 2nd of 3 with Hollywood piano man John Collins, 12^th of 13 stories in BM

~ Alan Farley [pseudonym of Mrs. W. Lee Herrington], “How Big Is the Bucket?”, ‘her 1st pub. Story; see p. 8 for brief biographical note’, and 1^st of 2 in BM

~ Robert Reeves, “A Taste for Murder”, 7th of 10 with PI Cellini Smith, 9th of 12 appearances in BM

~ Curt Siodmak, “Donovan’s Brain”, last of 3 parts, serialization of the novel published in 1943, only 3 appearances in BM by the author and director